Content for corporate social media sites is puzzling for many businesses. Where do you come up with enough content to keep customers following you? How often should you post content? How do you keep the lunatic fringe blog bombers from leaving nasty stuff all over your posts? It is one of those troubling areas that often has business leaders moving very cautiously with the medium.

Let’s talk about content in social media marketing. What makes good content on a social media site? So much of what is posted on corporate social media has to do with what is happening in your business. Someone gets a promotion. Your company was awarded a contract. It is an e-version of a press release. That is all good and fine. But I have found that content marketing that goes beyond telling me what you are doing in your company to telling me how you solved a problem is much more engaging. That is the sort of post I will read and pass on to others to read. If you are writing content for a blog, a case study, etc., get beyond the press release and get to the solutions for real problems. From our experience, this is where you can really reap the rewards of the power of social media. Good content that takes a problem/solutions approach gets passed around from follower to their network. This is social media at its best.

I often get the question: how often should I be posting on social media. That depends upon your audience, but it also depends upon you and your business. First, let’s talk about your target market, particularly your customers. They are the people you want to have following you. Why? You have already convinced them to buy from you at least one time and, if you have treated them right, they are the people who would be most likely to respond to your posts, like what you have to say, and share your posts with others. You should post enough that you are keeping your business in front of these customers. There are so many distractions in social media and people have a very short memory. What was news yesterday will be ignored tomorrow for the next trending story. Keep your posts fresh or you will be forgotten. On the other hand, how often does your business do something that is worthy of posting on social media? You want to make sure what you are posting is honest, relevant, and timely. That means you need to devote some thought and time to it. Your content marketing cannot be a flippant, last minute decision. It also cannot be weeks old before you post it. Good marketing takes a look at what is coming down the road and builds a social media plan around it.

How does your company engage in social media and still guard the reputation of the brand? In the very brief history of social media, a lot has changed. When it first came about, social media was a way to follow pop icons and act like one yourself. You were some sort of cyber hero if you could get thousands of followers, likes and retweets. As social media has grown up a bit (has it really?) and become more about business, most companies that I deal with have struggled to know just what to publish and what not to publish on social media. We have all seen the viral hate that gets posted on social media sites. The fear of many is that sort of thing can trend quickly and spiral out of control. Social media, as a whole, has tried to combat this by allowing some restrictions on comments. In many cases, you can choose to allow or disallow comments, filter comments to weed out profanity, and choose how public you want to make your site. Some social media sites are more business friendly than others. For instance, LinkedIn does a very good job of restricting hateful comments and blacklisting those who post disparaging remarks. Not all social media sites are created equally. Take a good look at the filters and restrictions put in place by social media. Also understand that these restrictions often change. Keep an eye on the policy changes that occur for such outlets.

Social media is a powerful marketing tool if you are putting out good content that your customers want to read (or watch in the case of video). Make sure you are planning ahead for projects that are coming through your business that would make a good problem/solution story. Post it in a timely manner and keep an eye on what resonates and what does not with your customers.